The Big Red carrier, however, failed to mentioned the exact launch date and the price, leaving us pondering how much Huawei’s “Galaxy Note II killer” will cost. Given its specs sheet (more on that in a minute), we tend to think that the Mate will be offered free of charge to anyone willing to put his/her signature on a two-year contract with a 30 GBP/month tariff (perhaps even less).

Huawei announced the Ascend Mate six months ago, during CES in Las Vegas. The device comes with a 6.1-inch 720p HD screen, Huawei’s own quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel camera.

The market of phablets is getting more crowded with the day. Recent entrants include the LG Optimus G Pro and Sony Xperia Z Ultra, with HTC apparently also working on a similar device.